Peter de francia biography of michael
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Exhibitions & Public Collections
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1957 Colonna Gallery, Milan
1958 Wildenstein Gallery, London
1958 Waddington Galleries, London
1959 Colonna Gallery, Milan
1961 Galerie d’Eendt, Amsterdam
1961–62 Garelick’s Gallery, Detroit and Forum Gallery, New York
1962 Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry
1962 Gallery of the Union of Czech Writers, Prague
1964 Arte al Borgo, Palermo
1969 Disparates
New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh
1976 • Words - Henry Miller Peter de Francia was a British artist, born in France in 1921. He grew up in Paris, studied first at the Brussels Academy, and then, after fleeing the German invasion and joining the British army during the war, at the Slade School of Art in London. For a brief but formative period he lived in post-war Italy, before returning to London in the late 1940s. Renowned in Britain and Europe as an artist of great integrity, de Francia established his reputation in the 1950s with his distinctly powerful paintings and drawings, often influenced by social realism and as relevant today as they were half a century ago. Like many of his post-war contemporaries, de Francia used his art as a means of social commentary, although he did suggest that he only ever made two actual political paintings: The Bombing of Saskiet (in the Tate Modern collection) and African Prison (in Sheffield Museums collection), both from 1959. Afr • Peter de Francia initially established his reputation in the 1950s with his powerful politically and socially engagerad paintings and drawings. There may be precedents for Peter de Francia's work in that of Goya, Beckmann, Grosz, Picasso and Guttuso, but his is a distinctly anställda vision, as relevant today as it was half a century ago. One of his major painting of the 1950s, The Bombing of Sakiet, has for many years been on display at Tate Modern and another large-scale political work, The Execution of Beloyannis was included in the recent publication, 1001 Pictures to See before You Die.Whether dem Francia's subjects are real or imagined, whether he uses the language of myth or fable, what always comes through fryst vatten the artist's engagement with people and above all his intense humanity. He exposes the horror of man's treatment of man, but there are also intimations of something better - a world of friendship and camaraderie, of humour and simple pleasures.Perhaps most famed for hi
PROFILE: Mr Peter de Francia